556 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
dropping a corm in each, and filling up with fine soil. Thus treated, 
they take care of themselves, and flower regularly for years. If grown 
in pots, the corms should be in contact to get the best effect, and the 
soil should be light and rich. Where the corms are not required to be 
saved, they may be flowered in pots or vases of moss, or cocoanut-fibre ; 
and for table decoration they may be grown in shallow saucers of water, 
a large number of corms being placed closely together. If planted in 
beds or borders at a distance of a couple of inches apart, it will not 
be necessary to take them up for several years—in fact, not until they 
have obviously become crowded. They propagate themselves by 
the production of several corms in place of the one that flowered; but 
many of them produce abundant seed in this country, which should be 
sown thinly in beds or pans of light sandy loam. They will not 
germinate until the season for the sprouting of the old corms; and they 
should be left until they have completed two seasons’ growth before 
being used as flowering corms. 
Description of A, Crocus awreus, the Yellow Crocus. B, Crocus 
Plate 256. = vernus, the Spring Crocus. Fig. 1, stamens, back and 
front aspects; 2, the ovary and stigmas of C. vernus. 
IXIAS 
Natural Order In1IpDE&. Genus Jaxia 
Ix1a (Greek iwxios, bird-lime: in allusion to the sticky juice). A 
genus of about twenty-five species of greenhouse bulbous perennials 
with sword-shaped leaves, and salver-shaped flowers in simple or branched 
spikes. There is a long slender perianth-tube and six-parted limb, three 
stamens inserted in the throat, a three-celled ovary terminating in a 
thread-like style, with three slender recurved stigmas. They are 
exclusively South African plants, whence most of them were first introduced 
in the latter half of the 18th century. They have been crossed and 
considerably improved by the Dutch growers, with whom they are 
still a speciality. 
IxIA MACULATA (spotted). Flower stems 1 foot high, 
Flowers orange with purple-violet centre; April and May. 
Introduced 1757. Plate 257. The var. ochroleuca, shown to the left of the 
plate, has cream-coloured flowers in a shorter,denser, more head-like spike. 
I. oporata (fragrant). Height, 1 foot. Flowers strongly scented, 
yellow, in many-flowered spike; May and June. Introduced 1757. 
Principal Species. 
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